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Show President's budget increases amount for Central Utah Project The budget request which President Carter sends to Congress Jan. 26 will contain a whopping $92,022,000 for the Central Utah Water Project. That will represent a one-third increase in the current spending level. This was disclosed last week by Rep. Gunn McKay, D-Utah, who said the budget request will include $82,854,000 for the Bonneville Unit, the heart of the proposed $!KK) million Central Utah project. pro-ject. "We've come a long way since the CUP was part of President Carter's hit list in 1977,"' said Mr. McCay, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee and last fall took director James Mclntrye of the Office of Management and Budget to Utah to inspect in-spect the state's water and energy needs. "This should put to rest once and for all any questions about President Carter's support for the Central Utah Project," he added. Mr. McKay, according to information received from the OMB, said the Bonneville Bon-neville Unit alone will get $82,854,000 as compared to $50,bl7,000 for the present fiscal year. The biggest items will be $20,240,000 for the Jordanelle Dam which will eventually even-tually store Colorado River Basin water for the Salt Lake City area. Another major request will be for $27,786,000 for the Strawberry Collection Collec-tion System, which is getting $16,232,000 lor this tiscal year. Still another big item is $16,651,000 for the Jordan Aqueduct-Alpine Aqueduct. Other Bonneville Unit items are $5,614,000 to virtually complete the Up per Stillwater Dam. $:il, ()l,0O0 for miscellaneous activities and $8,762,000 for nonreimbursable wildlife and recreation. ' For the Jensen Unit of CUP, administration ad-ministration will seek $5,878,000 which will nearly complete the Uintah Basin Project. For the Upalco Unit, mainly a project for the Indians, there wil be $2,790,000, most of which will be for preconstruc-tion preconstruc-tion work on the Taskeech Dam. For the Uintah Unit, a Ute Indians Project which still needs state legislature and congressional approval, the bill will contain $500,000 for completing com-pleting the advance planning work. "The one-third increase in CUP funding fun-ding recommended by Carter for fiscal '81 represents his understanding of the vital role water will play in the development develop-ment of our energy resources and minerals," said Mr. McKay. "It is also evidence of the president's commitment to developing the nation's alternate fuels to end our dangerous dependence on foreign imports. "We will closely study the administration ad-ministration request to be certain it is adequate to move the Central Utah Project Pro-ject in the most expeditious manner possible." |